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She is an amazing rider and athlete. I loved watching her school Theodore O Conner in Ocala at FHP.....just an amazing rider!
What is scary is that she had the Point 2 Airvest on and sustained these injuries.

Burst and compression fractures can happen with absolutely no impact, as JER points out. It is actually relatively common to see these fractures even in auto accident with airbag and no outward trauma of the patient.

Burst fractures are the result of AXIAL loading, something NO vest is designed to protect. Only a rigid HANS type device could possibly prevent that.

I am glad Karen is going to be OK. However, do not let her comments further bolster her false presumption that it saved her. A burst fracture piece moving in the opposite direction, would have paralyzed her.

Reed and JER are right on. Burst fractures are a result of axial loading, period. There is absolutely nothing involved in any commercial air vest designed to limit this injury at all. That doesn't mean they are bad, just that they don't prevent this injury any more then they prevent you from breaking your foot.

My thoughts are with Karen. This is an incredibly dangerous fracture, and with tiny differences in the angle of impact could have resulted in paralysis. T3-T6 fractures are also the hardest levels to brace adequately. She will probably be in a brace which covers from her neck to her pelvis - incredibly uncomfortable and frustrating. Even with that, patients with this sort of injury frequently fail bracing and ultimately require surgical fusion (actually what I might opt for right off if I was the patient!) Luckily she is a tough customer with the gumption to get through the recovery. Lots of jingles for her. Just don't be confused and think the airvest had anything to do with causing or mitigating this injury - it is a bystander here.

Yikes! Karen has a very serious injury and no, an air vest would (obviously) not prevent a burst or compression fracture.

I'm sure that her Point 2 sponsor is happy that she is an advocate, and it is possible that the vest did "save her from even furthur trauma", who knows?
It certainly did nothing to prevent her from incurring serious spinal injuries.

Anyway, so glad you squeaked through, (such a scary wreck) and healing jingles to you both!

Crazy Karen

Speedy recovery to crazy Karen.

Everybody knows which extraordinary role KOC has. Due to that role she is exposed to a high risk. Her many rides through the year on many different horses. Karen took al lot of tumbles in the past and her tumbles and heavy falls were permanent companions of gutsy and brave Karen.

Giving this a bump...I read on EN that I think they said she has to be quiet and sit still for a couple weeks....Karen, this is my plea -- write a book. Would love to read Karen's roadmap to the upper level horse -- what you buy, how you train it at home, what you do to make it ready, how you ride it, your tips and tricks on XC riding -- what a good rider has to do at the lower levels to make the horse understand his job at the upper levels.... PLEASE!!!!! (There, I just gave you the outline, now flesh it out!)

As others have said, this is not an injury to mess about with. If I were picking for a book, it would be Karen's thoughts and memories of all the great horses she has ridden and how the horses have changed (if they have) as the sport has changed over the years.

One of my absolute star-struck favorite moments was sitting next to Karen on a plane after Vita Thompson's funeral and hearing her reminisce about horses that she had ridden for the Thompson's over the years. One of my (totally non-horsey) DH's favorite stories is going to Rolex for the first (and only) time in 2002 and heading out to xc, where the first thing he saw was KOC hanging upside down in the water jump

This is the book I'd like to buy...

If I were picking for a book, it would be Karen's thoughts and memories of all the great horses she has ridden and how the horses have changed (if they have) as the sport has changed over the years.

Sending her jingles for a complete recovery without any detours... and even more jingles for her to find the ability to be quiet, rest and allow her body to heal.

Now about that book... It would be great to have her stories... the horses and the people she's met along the way... her experiences, her stories and how she's been able to do so much for so long at such a high level!!!

As others have said, this is not an injury to mess about with. If I were picking for a book, it would be Karen's thoughts and memories of all the great horses she has ridden and how the horses have changed (if they have) as the sport has changed over the years.

One of my absolute star-struck favorite moments was sitting next to Karen on a plane after Vita Thompson's funeral and hearing her reminisce about horses that she had ridden for the Thompson's over the years. One of my (totally non-horsey) DH's favorite stories is going to Rolex for the first (and only) time in 2002 and heading out to xc, where the first thing he saw was KOC hanging upside down in the water jump

Sending her jingles for a complete recovery without any detours... and even more jingles for her to find the ability to be quiet, rest and allow her body to heal.

Now about that book... It would be great to have her stories... the horses and the people she's met along the way... her experiences, her stories and how she's been able to do so much for so long at such a high level!!!